John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 14:23

"And thou shalt eat before Jehovah thy God, in the place which he shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of thy grain, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flock; that thou mayest learn to fear Jehovah thy God always." — Deuteronomy 14:23 (ASV)

And thou shalt eat before the Lord. He again commands the victims to be brought into the place of the sanctuary. Although by the place which God shall choose he designates Jerusalem, as has been said in the commentary on chapter 12 above, for the Ark of the Covenant had no settled resting-place until the time of David but was received, as it were, in temporary lodgings.

Moses, therefore, now commands that when God shall have so greatly honored a particular place and shall have chosen a perpetual rest in which His name shall dwell, the offerings are to be brought there. But we know that this place was Jerusalem, and all the oblations were restricted to this one place, lest any corruption should creep in to destroy the unity of the faith. For all strange inventions, as has already been sufficiently seen, are so many profanations of God’s worship.

But, whereas in chapter 12 Moses had promiscuously joined the tithes with the firstlings and had made the same appointment with respect to both, he now relaxes the stringency of that law by adding an exception, namely, that if the way should be too long, a commutation might be made, and money might be paid instead of grain. He does not, indeed, speak only of the tithes but unites with them the vows and free-gifts; in fact, he refers properly to these alone.

But, since regarding the latter there is no question, let us only consider whether it was consistent that the tithes should be paid in one place alone. They were given to the Levites for their maintenance, who, as is well known, were dispersed throughout the whole land; either their residence must then have been fixed at Jerusalem, or they must not have been deprived of their subsistence, wherever they might dwell.

The command, therefore, appears absurd: that all the tithes of the whole land should be brought to Jerusalem, for that would have amounted to nothing less than destroying the poor Levites by famine.

This absurdity has compelled commentators to fabricate a doubtful conjecture, namely, that the people voluntarily set apart certain tithes, which they might carry to Jerusalem at the festivals. But it is not probable that so heavy a burden was imposed upon them¹¹⁰ that they should only keep at home what remained of the fifth part.

But a nearer approach to probability would be that the tithes of the neighboring country, as convenience offered, were carried to Jerusalem, while those collected in more distant places were set aside there. However, they were accounted for at Jerusalem, so that upon a calculation of the number of their families, an equal distribution might be made to the Levites.

Certainly, it is by no means probable that the respective tillers of the soil carried up to Jerusalem what the Levites, having received it there, were compelled to take back again for the maintenance of their families. For what would have been the advantage of all this expense and trouble of carrying them backwards and forwards?

Besides, it would have been useless to command the Levites—and that with the addition of severe threats—to pay the priests faithfully if the tithes had been first deposited with the priests themselves, who could easily have provided against all deception since they had the whole quantity of grain in their own hands.

I have, therefore, no doubt that the Levites collected the tithes each in their own neighborhood, but that another tithing, of which mention will be made shortly, was carried up to the sanctuary as a sacred offering and a profession of service to God.

For we have recently seen that after that part had been withdrawn, the nine parts which remained were assigned to the Levites as if they had been grown on their own ground.

But because it was a subject that might cause complaints—that the first-fruits and other tithes should be collected into one place—God would anticipate this by showing its advantage to the whole people, in that there might be food enough for all who should come to the celebration of the festivals. For this is the meaning of the words, thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God; as if it had been said that the place should be sacred to God, to which the worshippers of God might come from the whole land.

Yet He commands, in the meanwhile, the pure observation of His worship, lest a diversity of places might draw away the people in various directions to false superstitions.

¹¹⁰ “De redoubler ainsi les dismes les unes sur les autres;” thus to redouble their tithes one upon another. — ;” thus to redouble their tithes one upon another. — Fr.